“As DeSean Jackson lay on the ground after his vicious collision with Falcons cornerback Dunta Robinson early in the second quarter, his offensive teammates stood a few feet away trying to process what they had just witnessed.

“When you see stuff like that, it just makes you step back and think,” said wide receiver Jeremy Maclin. “I don’t wish that upon anybody, especially one of my teammates.”

It makes you step back and think, but not for very long, because, like war, the injured are carried off and the battle continues and players have no choice but to compose themselves and get their heads – and bodies – back in the game.

Jackson, who suffered a concussion on the play, is not some insignificant, easy-to-replace foot soldier. He is one of the game’s most dangerous playmakers. He proved that again yesterday by scoring two first-quarter touchdowns that gave the Eagles an early 14-0 lead.

He ran for a 31-yard touchdown on a nifty end-around on the Eagles’ second play from scrimmage, then had a 34-yard catch and run for another score on the Eagles’ second possession.

His injury, which likely will keep him out of next week’s game against the Tennessee Titans, could have been devastating. But the ever-resilient Eagles barely missed a step in the 31-17 victory.

“When you lose a guy on offense, everybody else has to elevate their game,” Maclin said. “Especially a dynamic guy like DeSean. Everybody else has to pick up their game. We have playmakers all around this offense.”

Nobody elevated their game any higher in Jackson’s absence than Maclin, who had seven catches for a career-high 159 yards and two touchdowns against the Falcons.

Maclin’s first score came on an 8-yard diving catch at the goal line with 7 minutes, 34 seconds left in the second quarter that put the Eagles up 21-0. He added an 83-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter that made it 28-10. His second score came just after the Falcons had closed the gap to 21-10 on a 26-yard Matt Bryant field goal.”